Within in an hour, Charlie had cleared out of her condo. So fast that Carolina’s head was still spinning. What had happened? One minute they’d been twined like Twizzlers on her couch. Charlie’s mouth had been about four seconds away from dissolving all of her inhibitions and she’d somehow found the wherewithal to stop the train before it left the station. And the next? They were arguing in the kitchen about how she didn’t trust him. Which was true. It had always been true. Somehow admitting that didn’t lead to having a discussion about how to make that better. Instead, Charlie had thrown his stuff into boxes and stormed out through the front door in true dramatic fashion. He was gone. Apparently for good this time. The bet was over and he’d called it a draw. The adrenaline in her veins said otherwise. Nothing felt over. At loose ends, she prowled around the condo, which had grown so quiet she could hardly stand it. Charlie had infiltrated her domain, dang it. She could still smell his piney, citrusy scent, and it carved a huge hole in her stomach that she couldn’t fill even with the leftover box of donuts she found in the kitchen. What was wrong with her? She never ate more than one donut, but Charlie had a sweet tooth, constantly bringing junk into the house that threatened her balanced diet. That wasn’t happening anymore. Her eyes started stinging in the middle of the third donut. Sugar rush. Nothing more than her body flipping out from the shock, surely. But she was alone and there was no reason to pretend. Everything inside contracted painfully as she internalized that Charlie had walked out on her. Just like she’d envisioned he would during their first marriage. Not because of the bet. Because he didn’t think she was worth sticking around for. The tears started in earnest and she stumbled to her bathroom, only to find a row of tiny bottles lined up on her counter. Freesia-scented bodywash. Twelve bottles. Charlie had left his entire stash. It meant something. But she had no idea what. Like always, her brain deserted her when it came to the man she’d never been able to understand. She’d thought the one bottle had been it, using the stuff sparingly because she didn’t want to run out. Now she had like a year’s supply. And no one to wear it for. Charlie was the only one who ever noticed what she smelled like. Sinking to the floor, she cried until her throat hurt and she couldn’t breathe. This was why she hated crying. The powerlessness of it did her no favors. It solved nothing. Yet she couldn’t stop. Sometime later, maybe ten minutes, maybe an hour, she had no more clarity than before. She couldn’t have lost everything that fast. The body wash alone said he couldn’t possibly be finished with her, not after
holding on to it for this long. He was mad. That could be fixed. Right? Crawling to her feet she went in search of her phone and texted Eliza with a simple message. Charlie left. And wound up right back on the floor before she’d fully registered that her legs wouldn’t hold her. Eliza knocked on the door within a few minutes. “I’m okay. You didn’t have to come,” she called out through the still closed door. A lie. And Eliza didn’t bother to believe it. “Come on, open up,” her friend said. “I brought reinforcements.” That got Carolina curious enough to wobble to the door on unsteady legs. She swung it open to see a gaggle of females on the other side. Katie, Nomi, Lilith, Shiloh and Eliza. All of them. Here on her doorst ep like she was some kind of invalid who couldn’t handle it when a man acted like a man. Exc ept she couldn’t. What kind of advice guru was she? A failed one. “What are you guys doing here?” she chided them lightly, grateful beyond measure that they had come. “You all have jobs and husbands and fiancés to attend to. I’m fine.” “Yeah, we can see that,” Katie said with a sarcastic lift of her eyebrow. She didn’t need a mirror to know she looked a fright. Her complexion was likely more mottled than a stewed tomato. Why, because Charlie had left? She didn’t need him. Exc ept she did. And it was too late for that kind of realization. If she was going to be coming up with doozies like that, the opportune moment would have been when he’d been standing in her kitchen trying to work things out. And she’d pushed him away. Fixing things wasn’t on the list of possibilities. Katie skirted Shiloh and barged right into the condo, swe eping Carolina along with her as she hustled her to the couch, where she pointed to a cushion. Her fingernails were painted alternate colors as always, pearlescent white and candy apple red today. “Sit,” she instructed. “We have a lot to catch up on.” Carolina did as advised, loving her friends more than she had words for. Shiloh bustled into the kitchen, her dirty-blonde hair swinging in a sassy ponytail. She called over her shoulder, “I’m making tea. If anyone has objections to green with lemon, now would be the time to speak up.” No one spoke up. So there was going to be tea. Sounded like a girl powwow in progress and remarkably like the right thing to soothe her. She wouldn’t have thought to ask Eliza to round up the gang, but now that all of them were here... dang it. The tears weren’t done apparently. Nomi sat on the next cushion over, concern lining her pretty face as she smoothed a hand down Carolina’s shoulder, the diamond on her third finger flashing.
“Eliza didn’t give us much in the way of details,” she said. “Tell us what happened.” “I won,” Carolina said with as much cheer as she could muster as Eliza took the seat on the other side. Shouldn’t she be happy about that one thing at least? “Charlie’s giving me an annulment, and it’s over.” That was the bottom line. The one she had to cling to. Everything had worked out like she’d planned. Exc ept for the part where her heart wasn’t beating the same way. Everything inside hurt. And she didn’t like it. Lilith crossed her arms, her own third finger decorated with an engagement ring. “Somehow that’s not the end I envisioned to this experiment.” “Um, no,” Eliza seconded, glancing up at Lilith, who co-owned Relâcher alongside her. Chances were good they’d talked about Carolina’s bet with Charlie. A lot. “The two weeks isn’t even up. How did he concede that fast?” “Well, he didn’t exactly,” she hedged, because her friends didn’t need all of the gory detail, right? “He just said he couldn’t do this anymore and got all of his stuff. But that’s the same thing. I didn’t fall for his tricks and flowery declarations of love and that means I win.” Lilith and Eliza both sighed as Shiloh came back into the living room with two mugs, which she handed off to them, then went back for more. As soon as they all had cups of tea, the five ladies ringed her, their sober eyes all on Carolina. “Listen here,” Eliza said firmly. “What did you win, exactly? A life alone? That’s not winning. Honey, Charlie is the best thing that ever happened to you. I can’t believe you gave him up willingly.” “He really didn’t give me much of a choice,” she mumbled as the reality broke open inside her once again. “He said I was never going to trust him. I can’t. So that seemed to be the deal breaker.” “Yeah. I could see how that would be the case.” Eliza frowned and patted Carolina’s arm with her free hand. “I think we all sympathize. It’s hard to believe that a man could possibly be telling the truth about something as serious as forever. They’re all liars and cheats. We should dump our men too, right, ladies?” Carolina glanced up swiftly to see all of her hard work going up in flames as first Katie nodded, who had been happily engaged to Ivan for months, and then Nomi shrugged, apparently willing to throw away her marriage to Malone, the man she’d been in love with for years. Shiloh murmured her agreement along with Lilith, both of whom had found love unexpectedly. Lilith and Dane had literally just gotten married! You didn’t walk out on a brand-new marriage. Okay, well she had. But Lilith shouldn’t. And Shiloh’s fiancé, Kellan, couldn’t be shaken loose from her side with a jackhammer. Carolina would like to see her even try to shed him. “What are you all even talking about?” Carolina countered fiercely. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. My stuff has nothing to do with you. You all have great men to d epend on. I made sure of it.” This was the thanks she got for pulling strings behind the scenes to make sure her friends didn’t mess up the relationships they were meant for. “And we appreciate it,” Eliza said casually. “But it’s too hard to figure out if they’re for real or not. After all, every single one of our
relationships started out with a lie. Oh. Exc ept yours.” “That’s ridiculous,” she huffed automatically but then she couldn’t figure out how to follow up that statement as she scrambled to refute it. Hadn’t Charlie lied to her? R epeatedly? She couldn’t come up with one. She didn’t even think he was lying when he’d told her he loved her. That was when her chest really started to hurt. “What are you guys trying to do to me?” she whispered. “Intervention,” Lilith informed her cheerfully. “You know, my dad did some really awful things to my mom, but she was the one who helped me realize that you can’t live your life afraid of getting hurt. I wouldn’t give up Dane for a billion dollars. That man gets me at an elemental level, you know? I would have lost that if I hadn’t given him a chance.” “Well Charlie isn’t Dane,” Carolina snapped but it didn’t change the truth about the parallel. Not one tiny bit. Charlie did get her at an elemental level, just like Lilith had described. And Carolina had never given him a chance to prove he wouldn’t be like her dad. When Charlie had left her, he’d done it out of self- preservation. Because she’d hurt him. She’d been so focused on making sure she didn’t get hurt that she’d flipped that back on him. “Oh, man.” Carolina blinked hard but it didn’t stop more tears from forming. Great. Charlie had turned her into a big crybaby. “You guys with your reverse psychology. I screwed up. Didn’t I?” “We don’t know yet,” Eliza said gently. “But considering that Charlie’s gone, I’d say yeah. When he told you he loved you, what did you say?” “I might have accused him of quoting a Sting song,” Carolina mumbled as she thought back with growing dread. “And I possibly ignored it a couple of other times. Because he doesn’t give me a second to think!” Why was she on the defensive all at once? Charlie was the problem, not her. But that didn’t ring true. At all. She was so used to ensuring she stayed one st ep ahead that she’d forgotten how to take a st ep back and evaluate the situation objectively. “Sounds like he’s doing it right to me.” Eliza chuckled. “The more I thought about what was happening between me and Joaquin, the worse it got. Sometimes the key is to not think. Just go with what feels right.” “Yeah, that’s worked out so well for me before.” The last time she’d gone with her feelings she ended up in a chapel in Vegas married to a man she barely knew. And that rang false too. She’d known plenty. Like the fact there was no way a man like that would stick around. Only he wasn’t the one who had fled the marriage. So she’d ruined the best thing that had ever happened to her strictly due to her own unfounded fears. Twice. “Okay,” Carolina said abruptly. “Since you’ve so eloquently pointed out all the ways I’ve messed up, as well as all the ways my head isn’t screwed on straight, perhaps you’d be so kind as to explain how I can fix it.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Lilith piped up. “You grovel at his feet and beg forgiveness.” “Not on your life,” she countered with a scowl. “Next?” “You’re going to have to figure it out, honey,” Eliza said with a smile. “If it’s worth it to you. You know Charlie. What would he respond to best?” Carolina glanced at the digital clock on the microwave. “I have an idea.” “I like the sound of that,” Katie said with a wicked gleam in her eye that matched the tone of Carolina’s voice. Yeah, hopefully Charlie would too. She dug out her phone and dialed the number she had memorized but would deny she knew if anyone had asked. Before today anyway. “Two-Buck Chuck at your service,” Charlie said in his midnight smooth voice that he reserved for his show. “Wife or girlfriend?” “Which one would you prefer?” She held her breath, half expecting him to hang up on her. “Ah, it’s the host of Ask Carolina come to pay a visit to our show, gentlemen.” His tone had shifted oh so subtly, but she was probably the only one who could tell. He was furious. She wished she could see his face but she hadn’t opted to pull up the live stream on his website like she should have. Rookie mistake. But she’d never called in to his show before and she’d always listened to it while trying to fall asle ep in the dark. She was wide awake at this moment, desperate to hold on to the small bit of sanity she had left—which had Charlie’s name all over it. Also a rookie mistake. How could she have missed that the craziness happened when he wasn’t around? He’d always been there, in her heart if not physically. How could she be so dumb as to not realize that? “What can I do for you today, Ms. Kline? Did you miss ripping out what’s left of my soul and you can’t stand leaving a job unfinished?” She winced, but the ladies within earshot just crowded around her, holding ranks. Supporting her. Giving her the courage to right the wrongs she’d inflicted on this incredibly patient man who hadn’t given up on her. Please don’t let it be too late. “You owe me a honeymoon,” she informed him pertly, proud of the way her voice didn’t quaver a bit. “Plus the full two weeks you promised. Unless you want me to explain to all of your viewers how you reneged on our deal.” “I honestly don’t care anymore, Carolina,” he said and the resignation in his voice nearly undid her. “I’ll tell them for you. I quit, guys. The wager, the marriage, all of it. Love doesn’t conquer all and I lost the bet. Happy? Or would you like me to print up some business cards with Ms. Kline, Platform Killer emblazoned on the front?” Ouch. He was really upset. Because she’d hurt him. There wasn’t anything left to do but go for the big guns. “How about Mrs. Wilson, Reformed Cynic?”
“What?” he asked warily. “There’s only one Mrs. Wilson. My mom.” “I don’t know what to tell you. But I’m looking at an application to change my name and it clearly says Carolina Wilson.” She snapped her fingers at Eliza, who promptly and furiously tapped at her phone, then handed it over with the proper Dallas County form queued up, bless her. There were copious benefits to having the same best friend since grade school. And now she didn’t have to start the first day of what would hopefully be the rest of her married life with a lie. No more pretending. Only truth from here on out. “I’m sorry, darling,” she murmured. “I should have told you I loved you a tenth of a second after you said it to me. I didn’t because... well, first and foremost, I’m an idiot. But also because I didn’t want to admit that I’m on your side now. Love is possible. For me and you and lots of other people.” “Are you seriously saying I converted you? Because I don’t believe you.” The raw suspicion didn’t surprise her. It was warranted. “Of course I’m not saying that. Have you met me? I do not sway easily. No, what I’m saying is that I’ve always been in love with you. Since the cactus. It never went away.” “You make it sound like antibiotic-resistant diphtheria,” he said and she cursed the fact that she hadn’t tuned in to the broadcast. It sounded like he was smiling. “While all of this is lovely, it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t know how to trust that you’ll stick around this time.” Oh, the irony. It wasn’t lost on her. “Normally I’d say that’s my line. But the truth of the matter is that I was always scared you’d leave me. The way my father left.” “So you made sure I never had the chance to prove you right.” Bless him—the man did know how to fill in the blanks. “Bingo. I’m not going to say I’ve given up my idiot card. Because I’m bound to mess up again at some point. Which I’ll deny I ever said if you r epeat, by the way.” “Good thing only a few million people are listening to your confessions then.” He was definitely smiling now and it lightened her heart. “How about a new bet?” she suggested. “One that will allow me a chance to prove that I’m serious about you this time.” “I’m not hanging up. Yet,” he stressed. “Happily ever after. You and me. I bet you a real honeymoon that I can make you happier than you can make me.” “That’s not a real bet,” he scoffed. “How do you decide who wins?” “Oh, my dear husband. That’s the beauty of it. We both win. Come home and I’ll prove it to you.” “I’m in the middle of a show,” he reminded her, sending her pulse into a tailspin. “Which is why I’m signing off, guys. I have a bet to win.”
Epilogue Charlie moved back into Carolina’s condo, but this time, she put his name on the paperwork that said he’d be a permanent resident. They had a brief argument about which bedroom he’d use, but eventually she won—so they were sharing hers. Like a real married couple who loved each other and planned to stay married forever. Since she’d never shared a life with anyone exc ept for the few days Charlie had been there during the wager period, she’d gone into this new phase of experimentation assuming it would be much like that. It wasn’t. For one thing, Charlie took up a lot of space. Closet—definitely less room for her stuff. Bathroom—not even worth mentioning how much less real estate she had. Her heart—completely and utterly full of him. “Morning check-in,” he said as she served him a cup of coffee that she’d made with her own two hands, a habit she’d fallen into without discussion because his coffee tasted like dishwater. “How are we doing?” This was a ritual he’d devised that ensured they always talked about their relationship. It was exactly what she didn’t know she’d needed. Much like the entire marriage as a whole. “I’m not sure.” She shrugged, biting back a smile as he scowled. “This is the exact opposite of what I was expecting.” “What were you expecting? Breakfast in bed?” Considering what she got to wake up next to every morning, the idea had merit. “No. I was expecting to constantly be looking over my shoulder, scared out of my mind that you’d have packed without me noticing. Little did I realize that it would hardly es cape my attention when you’ve hogged so much of the shelf in the shower.” His face relaxed back into the slightly besotted expression that she loved. “I can’t help that it takes a village of products to make me look this good.” He swirled a finger at his thick, dark hair. “I’m gratified to hear that you’re not walking around on eggshells waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m not going anywhere. Like I’ve told you.” “Yes, you’re my antibiotic-resistant diphtheria,” she told him fondly. “I couldn’t cure myself of you if I tried.” “Just curious. What finally made you believe me?” “The tattoo.” She patted it. “Anyone who would undergo that kind of pain to etch me permanently into his skin isn’t a flight risk. Too bad the initials are wrong now.” “They’re exactly right.” He’d refused to have them fixed. If he’d changed them to Carolina’s married initials, CW, they also became his own, and easily explained away if he’d ever moved on to another woman. He didn’t want easy or another woman. Obviously. Or he’d never have married her. Twice. “You know what’s not exactly right?” When he lifted his brows in question, she sank down onto the couch to curl into his side as best she could when they both had mugs of coffee. He solved that problem by taking them both and setting them on the table in favor of wrapping his arms around her. Which worked for her and then some.
“You’re not allowed to have anything in your life that’s not right,” he murmured into her hair. “What is it? I’ll fix it.” “You already did, doofus. What’s not right is that I spent years building a platform that espoused the evils of men. I kind of ruined my show when I went on yours.” “Sorry-not-sorry. Come on my TV show as a guest host. They’ll love it.” “That’s yours. You earned that spot fair and square. I have something better in mind.” An idea she’d been toying with for a while and had become the clear path the happier she got. “I’m going to open a matchmaking agency.” “A what?” “I know, I know. You have to have a fundamental belief in love and happily ever after in order to want to get other people together.” She shrugged. “I guess that means I won our bet.” Happily ever after. With Charlie. Who would have thought? “We both did,” he reminded her. “Is this because you broke your new boyfriend’s heart when you told him we were staying together? You want to match him up with someone else so he can get over you?” Oh, man. She’d forgotten all about how she’d mislead Charlie into believing she had another man in the wings. “There’s no boyfriend. There was never anyone but you.” “I know.” She could feel his indulgent smile against her hairline. “I was just teasing you.” “How did you know?” But he just mimed zipping his lips, which was probably for the best. She didn’t need every single detail of how this miracle of a marriage had come to be. She just needed Charlie. And that was the beauty of being married to someone who got her at an elemental level.